While not much, I hope to keep writing for the year of 2017, with a publishing schedule of one post a week on Mondays at 07:00 AM PST.

For 2017, I would like to go more in-depth about:

Financial Independence/Early Retirement

Churning and Travel Hacking

Budgeting and Minimalism

Net Income Reports

With that said, I’d like to start off this year by challenging myself to budget my spending on-time and daily. This would allow me to understand where my money is being used without any programs or services like Mint or Personal Capital. To do this (and if you would like to join me), I created a spreadsheet on Google Drive.

The layout of the spreadsheet looks like this:

There are a total of six columns (you can add more if you would like): Name, Date, Price, Occurrence, Card, and Description.

With each transaction I make in a day, I would create a new line detailing the item on my smartphone, as the spreadsheet will be available everywhere as long as I have the Google Drive application. This would allow me to track and categorize my spending instantly.

For example, if I purchased a toothbrush from Walmart, I would enter it into the spreadsheet like so:

While it is a simple challenge, the main purpose is to develop a daily habit to track and record where my money goes on a daily or even yearly basis.

With that said, what are your 2017 New Years Resolutions? Do you have anything cool planned out?

Connect with me on Social Media!

If you liked this post, feel free to share it with your friends or connect with me on social media and give me a shout out! It really helps me continue to produce more and better content for you guys!

5 thoughts on “2017 New Years Resolutions”

I like to plan for early retirement, but I don’t know if I would actually retire early (feel like I would not have enough things to do). I read in a magazine that a lot of early retirees are actually having more health problems than their peers who continue to work……weird. Anyway, best of luck in 2017!

Tracking your spending is a good idea. You’ll be able to see where your money is going and then maybe catch yourself from spending too much in a certain area like fast food, bars, etc. One thing I’ll tell you, you dont really need to buy as much stuff as you think you do. Delay all the electronic upgrades. Develop some discipline and self control. If not, after the fact you will probably regret spending so much on stuff that doesnt matter that much. Im not suggesting you just hoarde your money. But from my own experience, I’d rather have more financial security and just buy things I want more selectively and less often. You really wont miss it.

Recently, I’ve been wanting to upgrade my cell phone to the latest Google Pixel or even iPhone 7 Plus. Can you believe that these phones cost about $1,000? But in actuality, I don’t have to upgrade because my phone still works fine and if I continue using my phone until it breaks, maybe something new and even better will come out by then and save money by not keeping up with the “Joneses” (the latest technology).

Yea what they want to charge you is too much. I usually keep my eye out for a deal and seek out value that is reasonable. The latest phones are nice but at what cost? They seemed to put out some good cell phone deals for Black Friday. TIme will fly by then see what deals are out there later this year. And if you do spend a little extra for something you like, just take care of it and keep it for a long time.